


Filling in the Blanks - Amber

by Thefishoutofwater



Series: Filling in the Gaps [13]
Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: Angst, F/M, Family, Unexpected Visitors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-03-04 06:33:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13358541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thefishoutofwater/pseuds/Thefishoutofwater
Summary: Will an unexpected visitor spoil Meredith and Jo's hard won peace?





	Filling in the Blanks - Amber

**Author's Note:**

> A/N Assume this comes some time after Season 12, Episode 14 and Meredith’s and Jo’s heart to heart.

 

Jo Wilson groaned as she sank into a seat in the cafeteria next to her boyfriend who was tapping away on his phone.

“I’m so sore. Orthopaedics is harder than it looks you know? I swear I almost popped something out of its socket trying to help my last patient. Keep this up and I’ll have to join a gym.”

“Nah you just need more cardio.” he smirked cheekily and waggled his eyebrows at her.

She snorted and was about to respond when she was distracted by Meredith Grey who was moving at great speed and with apparent purpose towards their table,

“Alex! You need to answer your damned texts!” her frustration was obvious. She took a deep breath and apparently trying nodded at Jo, “Wilson.”

“Afternoon Dr Grey.” Jo nodded back.

“Sorry I was just responding now.” He held the phone towards his friend who waved it away,

“Never mind that. We need to talk.”

“Sit down then. Talk. But I’ve just come out of five hours of surgery with Kepner and I need food.”

Meredith shifted her weight from foot to foot and glanced pointedly at Jo, who started to gather her lunch back onto the tray. The younger woman was surprised to feel Alex’s hand still her arm and he met her eyes with a warm look,

“Jo’s been rushed off her feet all day too. I’m good to talk here. Are you?” his tone was pointed,

Meredith pursed her lips slightly but pulled out a chair, rubbing an eye tiredly,  

“Ok then.”

A pause followed as she tapped her nails against the table,

“Mer?” Alex was starting to become concerned.

“Did you not think to tell people when you moved out of the house?” Both Alex and Jo looked confused at this strange starting point, “I mean the last time when you moved to the crack den you call home now.”

Jo bristled slightly. She knew their neighbourhood was less than ideal, but she’d worked hard to make their loft welcoming and homey. Apparently unaware or uninterested in the offense she had caused Meredith continued,

“Well I guess I mean any of the times. You’ve spent years moving in and out of my house. Have you ever bothered to tell people where you were at a given point? Or was it just assumed that I’d point people in your direction wherever that happened to be. Normal people do cards or at least message people so they know where to find them, but you just assume people can rock up to my house and I’ll sort it…”

“Woah,” Alex held his hand up gently, “Slow down you are rambling and making zero sense. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?”

Meredith continued as if she had not heard him,

“I mean there was the crazy girlfriend who tried to kill herself in my kitchen.”

“Water under the bridge. Get to your point.”

“I mean even when your brother turned up Derek and Lexie managed the tough bit,”

Alex flinched slightly, purposely ignoring Jo’s questioning looks,

“They had to. You were camped out in my bathroom while I tried to get a shower freaking out at me about having kids. I mean now look at you, proud mom of three” he paused and tilted his head slightly, “ **my** point -  it was a very long time ago. Now what the hell is **yours**?”

Jo’s eyes were wide as she watched the pair. Meredith set her jaw,

“My point? My point is that your sister showed up as I was arriving home from a very long shift. I’ve had to leave her making chit chat with Maggie and who knows how that could end up! My point is that your niece is currently in my living room playing with my son. My point Alex, my point is that maybe your sister should know where you live?”

Jo bit her lip trying not to jump in and say something she would regret watched as Alex recovered from his shock,

“Amber? Amber is here?” A pause as he watched Meredith nod, “And she’s got a kid? I have a niece? Are you sure it’s her?”

 “Oh it’s her aright.” Meredith apparently calmer smiled at him, “She remains 100% Karev.”

He looked at her suspiciously,

“What do you mean? Is she ok?”

“She’s fine Alex. They both are. This is **not** like Aaron. They’re healthy and well. That said I do think you should come home and see them, she’s only here today. I was already on the paediatric floor and the new attending said she’d cover for you if you needed to clock off. You just need to text her. One of the residents is sorting your post-ops.”

Jo felt a pang at both the causal ‘home’ as she watched the two lock eyes continuing their conversation without words.  Apparently, they reached a consensus,

“Okay thanks.” He held out his hand, “Did you say you’d been here all night? Give me your keys and I’ll drive.  Jo can take mine later.  Right?” he turned to Jo with raised brows,

“Would you not rather do this at our place? I can get a cab home and you can drop Dr Grey now? Leave her car for later.”

Alex and Meredith exchanged a quick glance,  “That’s kind Jo but I’d rather do this at Mer’s.”

Jo could not help herself,

“Of course you would. It’s _home_ right?”

Alex sighed,

“No. Yes. Well not really. But Mer and Pierce are there to run interference. And Amber’s been there once before. Look she’s had a kid and I didn’t even know. If being around Bailey means she and I can talk then that works.”

“I didn’t even know your sisters name. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure you had a sister,” Jo’s tone was resentful.

“Because I’s got nothing to do with you. It’s been a long time.”

“Nothing to do with me?” she was incredulous. She couldn’t believe he was making the same mistake again, “I guess not, I don’t know her. She doesn’t know me. You and Dr Grey and she can hang out together. What do I matter?”

“Not now Jo please?” He sounded desperate and Meredith looked embarrassed.

Jo stopped. There were hundreds of retorts she wanted to throw his way, but they were still on somewhat uncertain ground,  

“Ok. Fine. Go.” She packed up the remainder of his lunch onto her tray watching the two friends head quickly towards the exit without a second glance back in her direction.  

 

* * *

 

It was dark as Jo pulled up in front of Dr Grey’s house. To her disappointment she had not heard from Alex all day despite having spent the day nervously checking her phone. At the end of her shift she had headed home hoping to find him, and maybe even his sister and niece there but the loft had been cold and dark. She’d been grilling a cheese sandwich when the phone did light up. The message from Meredith had confused her,

_Amber and Lily have left. Alex here. Think you should come to him._

She stood on the porch trying to pull her thoughts together. She was angry and hurt Alex had not been in touch and did not quite know what to think of Dr Grey being the one to reach out to her. They may have recently come to a sort of understanding but it was decidedly out of character.  Before she was ready the door swung open and the eldest of the Shepherd-Greys stood in front of her, dancing on the tips of her onesie clad toes, a large grin across her face, 

“Hi Jo!” she half sang, “Mommy said I could open the door because she knew it was you. She was watching you sit in the car.  She’s on the couch,” the little girl lowered her voice to deliver a quiet confidence, “after Lily left – she’s cute by the way. Anyway after that Mom and Alex have been drinking! It’s why I am still up!”

“But you are going to bed now,” Maggie Pierce gave Jo a tired smile as she came behind her niece, “and it’s nice to invite guests in ZoZo. Night Wilson.”

“Night Jo,” the little girl waved as she ran into the living room leaving a confused Jo in the entrance way, “night mommy! Auntie Maggie said she’d read me a story!”

Jo hovered near the doorway watching mother and daughter kiss goodnight. Meredith was curled in the corner of her L shaped sofa, wine glass in hand, baby monitor next to her. There was no sign of Alex anywhere. Meredith looked up and smiled,

“Hey Wilson,” she paused, “Jo. Grab yourself a glass if you want. You’re not on call tonight are you?”

Jo nodded and headed towards the kitchen,

“Where’s Alex?”

Meredith smiled,

“He said he was putting Bailey to bed,” she held up a finger and gave a half smile that made Jo realise Zola has been telling the truth and her mother was quite tipsy, “but I haven’t heard them in the nursery, so I conclude that they are asleep in one of the other rooms.”

“Do you mind if I check?”

Meredith nodded an affirmative as she levered herself up and followed Jo up the stairs,

“I reckon his room is most likely,” she pushed at the slightly ajar door noticing Jo’s confused look she tried to explain, “I mean his room when we were all here. Not his room when you two lived here. That’s my room. Look.”

Jo peaked in around the door. Lying on the bed, one arm over his head was Alex, who was breathing deeply and easily in his sleep. Nestled into his chest was the little blond head of Bailey, also fast asleep; one small and curled into Alex’ t shirt the other splayed over the book they had obviously been reading. Meredith smiled softly and warmly at the two on the bed. She pulled a comforter from the bottom of the bed and gently lay it over Alex’s legs and lower body, tucking it carefully around her slumbering son. 

“I say leave them for now. Let’s you and I have a chat.”

Despite the softer than usual tone Jo heard it for the order it was and reluctantly turned to follow Meredith back down the stairs a final tender glance at her boyfriend. 

Meredith returned to her original spot on the sofa and encouraged Jo to sit. She paused and waited half smiling to herself as the younger woman perched still and uncomfortable,

“Make yourself comfortable Jo.”

Jo startled, she really was not used to Meredith Grey using her first name. Meredith noticed and smiled,

“Sorry you don’t mind? Look you have questions and Alex isn’t always.” She paused looking for the right words, “the thing about Alex is he cares. More than he’d like people to know. But he’s not great at using his words. Not really. Anyway, he wants you to understand but he’s worried he’ll mess it up if he tries. We know how that goes right? You both ending up saying something that can’t be taken back – like earlier,” She paused, watching the emotions play over Jo’s face, “So we thought, maybe, I could help.”

Jo silently seethed. Logically she knew that Meredith was trying to respect her and her relationship post their frank conversation and that Alex was desperate to avoid another angry set of words but that emotionally she felt horribly excluded. She could not help but imagine the two of them curled up on the sofa, wine in hand, their comfortable conversational shorthand covering all sorts of difficult topics of which she was apparently one. Meredith watched quietly guessing what Jo was thinking,

“That did not come out right. It’s just we were talking today after Amber left and he told me he hadn’t talked to you about them. He’s embarrassed about some of his choices and he’s afraid they’ll hurt you.”

“That’s probably a conversation I should have with him.”

“Probably. But he’s asleep,” Meredith paused and took a quick mouthful of wine whilst Jo wondered if she’d waited to send the message until she knew he would be, “and I’m awake and here and have permission to talk so….”. She leaned over and topped up Jo’s wineglass and started talking, “The first I knew about his brother was when he turned up on the doorstep; no insurance and a hell of a hernia. We persuaded Bailey to do the op pro-bono and then he was gone but not before there had been punches thrown and they’d both said some stuff they probably regretted.”

Jo nodded, thinking furiously. Meredith continued,

“He mentioned them a little bit after that and I know he was sending money but that was that. Then when Aaron was diagnosed?” she paused to see if this sounded familiar to her now eager audience who shook her head in the negative,

“Schizophrenia same as their mom.” Meredith voice briefly broke from her soft ‘mom voice’ and into doctor mode, “He attacked Amber. Alex drove all the way to make sure he was somewhere secure and then back here again for work.” She smiled fondly,  “Idiot didn’t tell anyone and did it all on his own.”

“What about Amber?” Jo was drawn into the story despite herself,

“The story didn’t come out til much later. Alex got her settled with an Aunt while she finished high school. Sent money for his mom’s medication and to Amber when he could. She’d call sometimes fill him in with what was going on. He was pleased when she graduated and proud and scared when she joined the army, carried on dropping her cash when he could. Kept checking in on Aaron and his mom. Sending money, meds. Haranguing doctors when he needed to.”

“So why was she here today?”

“They’d lost touch. She lost a phone with all her contacts and she could not remember the address here and even the hospital’s changed its name.  She was passing through on the way to a new posting abroad and thought it was worth seeing if she should could reconnect properly. She came here once briefly as she went to basic training.”

“He couldn’t have called her?”

Jo’s tone was judgemental and Meredith stiffened despite herself as the younger woman continued, “I don’t understand why he’s not talked about them. I mean he’s told me worse things.” Jo wrinkled her nose slightly thinking about some of their earlier conversations,

“I think maybe because he feels like he abandoned them. Utter crap of course, he’s done nothing but look out and protect them in his own way, when he was still at home and going ten rounds with his dad and then later” Meredith was defensive even as she dismissed the three years that Alex had not tried to contact his sister and blithely ignored the important life events he’d missed, “he knows you’re sensitive about abandonment, about being left and he was afraid of what you’d think.”

Jo tried to not respond as she imagined what Alex might have said about her to his friend,

“Alex is loyal. I told you I’d like to see you stick Wilson. But you must give him a break. Let him tell you things in his own time. He wants to be with you, you have the damn ring in your underwear drawer after all. Trust in that a little more maybe?” Meredith smiled, “Now if you don’t mind I have three kids and have had maybe two hours sleep in the last twenty four. I have to go sleep. Let me go grab Bailey and you can go stay with Alex. If you want to that is?”

Jo nodded dumbly as she watched Dr Grey head up the stairs. Draining her glass pondered what she’d heard and why Meredith had decided to confide in her. Wondered why she herself had never asked the obvious questions of Alex about his family. There had after all been enough hints over the years.  Since her conversation with Meredith a few weeks prior she’d been trying hard to tamp down on her jealousy of the easy friendship with no holds barred approach between her boyfriend and his self-confessed person. However sitting in the dim light she could not help but wonder if her own fiercely protected secrets were starting to poison everything.


End file.
